Political Leaders of Provincial Pennsylvania

Political Leaders of Provincial Pennsylvania

Political Leaders of Provincial Pennsylvania

Excerpt

The names of the Quaker politicians in this book have been selected with the view of showing the applicability (or otherwise) to the practical affairs of government of the principles which to some extent ruled their lives.

That they were all, from William Penn down, more or less of idealists, is a fact of which they themselves were very conscious. As all idealistic attempts have their lessons either of adoption or avoidance, this one may be worth recording.

As a whole the experiment succeeded. As in politics in general there was temporizing. Their anti-martial views were the most difficult to apply consistently and finally were the cause of their abstention from public affairs; but there are interesting deductions to be drawn both from the threescore years of success and the ultimate break-down. Their ideas of civil and religious liberty, their treatment of the Indians, their penal and hospital systems, the large material growth which accompanied their management, and the general tone of their public life afford a basis of a favorable judgment upon their experiment.

The religious leaders of Friends have received ample recognition in print. Something, however, is still due to these practical men who wrought with such devotion in working out the principles of the "Holy Experiment. . . ."